About Me

Although I haven't gotten a western made yet, there's interest in a western series I've created (on paper). If you'd like to take a look at the sort of things I write, please visit my website, www.henrycparke.com. Thanks for looking!

MY Q&A WITH INSP-TV

HENRY ON ‘WRITER’S BLOCK’

On July 30th, 2015, I was the guest of hosts Bobbi Jean Bell and Jim Christina on ‘Writer’s Block’, their L.A. TALK-RADIO talk-show about the art and craft of writing. You can click PLAY to hear it, or DOWNLOAD to download it.

ROUND-UP ON THE RADIO!

Last Christmastime I was a guest on AROUND THE BARN, and had a great time talking about the Round-up, my writing, and Gene Autry’s Christmas music. To listen, click HERE.

Other Stuff I Write

While this blog is strictly about Western stuff, I also write another blog, Stalling Tactics, which is about anything else. If you'd like to read my most recent post, COSTUME DRAMA TRAUMA, go HERE.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Playing through November 30th, at the
Monroe Forum Theatre at the El Portal in North Hollywood, Mitch Hale’s BUFFALO
SOLDIER is a taught eighty minutes of suspense, as growing menace strips the
brave, sometimes haughty false-faces of a group of soldiers over one long
night. Set in the summer of 1874, four
cavalry soldiers are doing reconnaissance in Comanche territory. Three of them are black former slaves. Corporal Jofum Wymo (Tony Williams) is a
scout who wears a mix of soldier blue and Indian leather. He’s the most experienced soldier; but he’s
haunted by dreams. Private Benjamin
Kewconda (Kendall Johnson) has the least experience, and the least commitment
to the job. He’s got a likeable
irreverence, but you worry how he’ll handle himself when the going gets tough. Sergeant Isaac Williams (Will Catlett) takes
immense pride in his position; he respects the Corporal’s experience, and has
contempt for the Private’s insubordination.
In charge is Captain Caleb Cooney, the only white man in the group, and
he’s not a man to inspire overwhelming confidence.

l to r, Kendall Johnson, Tony Williams, Will Catlett

The Corporal stumbles upon a lone brave (Wasim
No’Mani), and takes him into custody.
How to deal with the prisoner – and possibly many braves just outside
the light of their campfire – becomes a crucial question when the soldiers learn
that he is not just a brave: he’s Chief Quanah Parker, and the Comanche will
not give him up without a fight.

To say that playwright Mitch Hale is committed to
this story is putting it mildly. He
spent six years researching the history before he wrote his first draft. First produced in Seattle in 1994, he’s
continued to rewrite it ever since. His
inspiration was acting in the Vietnam-themed play TRACERS in 1987, and being
struck by the outsized role blacks, other minorities, and poor whites took in
the actual fighting. He wondered how far
back this pattern went, and learned about the heroic and largely unsung heroism
of the black Cavalry soldiers, dubbed Buffalo Soldiers by the Indians because
of the texture of their hair.

Wasim No'Mani

While the story’s core can be seen as informed with
an awareness of parallels to the Vietnam War, BUFFALO SOLDIER is not a Vietnam story in the guise of a
Western. It stands firmly and
confidently in its own boots. As a
matter of fact, the closest dramatic comparison is to Alfred Hitchcock’s
LIFEBOAT, screenplay by John Steinbeck and Jo Swerling, with its boatload of
passengers coping with captured Nazi sailor Walter Slezack.

It’s a gripping, suspenseful and emotionally
involving story, and at the risk of sounding racist, it is all the more
remarkable as the product of a self described “short skinny white guy from
Denver,” who describes in his introductory Playbill notes having his name
called for Best Play at the 1995 NAACP Theater Awards. “Applause, applause, applause, I dash up the
aisle, and as soon as I hit the stage – thundering silence.”

Sara Wagner skillfully directs the excellent
ensemble cast in the 99-seat theatre, the audience nearly surrounding the
stage, bringing an intimacy with the performances that is at times
startling. Evening performances are
Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m.
Matinees are Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $35, and the show runs through November
30th.

On Saturday, November 1st, at 10 a.m., you’ll
have the chance to bid on some unique artifacts of American History. Skinner,
Inc., auctioneers, will be offering up items from the Fort Ticonderoga
Museum, the New York State outpost that was a crucial site to Robert Rogers in
the French & Indian War, and to General George Washington during the
American Revolution. More than 350 lots
will be offered, all available both in person and online.

Rising breech Carbine

If you are like me, your immediate reaction is
concern – is the Museum in trouble? I am
assured that it is not, and these items are being sold to expand the acquisition
fund of the Museum, whose collection was begun in 1931, making it one of our earliest
historic preservation and reconstruction projects.

Reverend Hezekiah Smith documents

In addition to items
directly related to the Fort’s history, the auction also features artifacts
from the Civil War right up through World War II including pistols and muskets,
rare Confederate carbines, and historic documents. Among the fascinating documents are those of
Reverend Hezekiah Smith, who later helped found Brown University. His papers include a commission signed by
John Hancock, and an invitation to dine with General George Washington.

Powder horn described below

There are a lot of
beautiful guns and eagle-pommel swords, but my favorite item is the French
& Indian War powder horn, on which is etched, ‘By Powder & Ball / The
French Shall Fall / Rufus Hill’. Go HERE to see the entire catalog, and to
register to bid. The auction will take
place at 10 a.m. at 274 Cedar Hill Street, Marlborough, MA 01752. All photos are courtesy of Skinner, Inc.

‘WEST TO BRAVO’ ARTIST
& AUTHOR SIGNING SUN. NOV. 2 AT OUTWEST!

Artist Al P. Bringas,
whose western art is on display at OutWest from October 25th through
January 4th, and author Eric H. Heisner, will be shaking hands and signing
Heisner’s new novel, WEST TO BRAVO, illustrated by Bringas, from 2 to 5 p.m. on
Sunday, November 2nd. BRAVO is a
post-Civil War Cavalry tale plotted in the tradition of the great John Ford
Cavalry Trilogy. If you attend, dress
like your favorite character from a John Ford western, or John Wayne western –
or both – and have a chance to win a signed copy of the book! The OutWest Western boutique and cultural center is at 22508 6th Street, Newhall, CA 91321. Click HERE to learn more about the event!

DEATH VALLEY ‘49ERS
ENCAMPMENT NOV. 5TH -9TH

Head to Furnace Creek
Ranch – and bring water and sunscreen – for a five-day celebration that will
include a Western art show, wagon train, pioneer costume contest, Western
music, woodcarving and needlework displays, horseshoe and gold-panning contests,
trips to historic desert sites, and community breakfasts, and an 1849 poker
tournament! It’s at the Ranch in Death
Valley National Park, and you can learn more by calling 831-818-4384, or
visiting HERE

THAT’S A WRAP!

For a while I didn’t
think I’d get this posted at all – the lights kept going out! Then again, working by candlelight makes for
a nice frontier atmosphere. Have a great
week, and next Sunday I’ll tell you about the Croatian Western I saw on
Thursday, among other things!

By the way, as it’s
almost Halloween, what’s your favorite scary Western? JONAH HEX?
COWBOYS & ALIENS? ABRAHAM
LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER? It’s a thriller
than a horror movie, but how about THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE WEST, with Hugh O’Brian,
and soon-to-be master producer Robert Evans as the psycho? My favorite is CURSE OF THE UNDEAD, with
RAWHIDE’S Eric Fleming, and the great Aussie character actor Michael Pate as
the vampire. But I’ll bet you know of
other good ones that I’ve missed.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents
Copyright October 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Gene Autry’s legacy extends into many fields. His hundreds of radio shows, hundreds of
popular music recordings, ninety-one starring movies and nearly 100 TV episodes
have few parallels in the entertainment industry. And that’s not even counting the movies and
TV series he produced, the radio stations, television stations, and the Angels
baseball team he owned. And then there
is the flagship of the Autry empire, The
Autry Center for Western Studies, one of the world’s finest collections of
the American West.

But now, as the man has been gone sixteen years this
past week, one wonders if there is a mission for Gene Autry Entertainment beyond burnishing his legend. Maxine Hansen, executive assistant to Mrs.
Autry, and a long-time employee of the man, has created one which Gene, a
ground-breaking TV producer and star, would surely have embraced. With the cooperation and collaboration of
both Gene Autry Entertainment and The Autry Center, Maxine has created the
20thCentury Television Western Oral
History Program. She has been interviewing both acting and
behind-the-scenes talent from Western television’s golden age, and creating an
archive that will serve researchers, and through them will benefit readers and
audiences, for generations to come. This summer I had the opportunity to speak
with Maxine about Gene, and her oral history program.

Her real enthusiasm for Westerns began when she was
eight. She’d panicked when she thought
her parents had abandoned her – in fact her dad was just driving her mom to
bingo – and when he came back, he calmed her down by putting her in his lap and
watching the first episode of BONANZA together.

MAXINE: And when Michael Landon comes on, no more
tears; I’m in love. In my life, we had a
lot of change; I lost my parents quite early.
We moved a lot. And the constant
was that you could always know that BONANZA would come on. It was the knowledge that some things in life
were okay.

HENRY: Like
comfort food for the mind.

MAXINE:
Yeah! The Ponderosa’s there; the
four of them are strong. It was good for
me.

HENRY: When
was the first time you saw Gene Autry onscreen?

MAXINE: Not
until I started working for him. Gene’s
longtime friend, Johnny Grant, the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, also worked at
KTLA, and his secretary was a friend of mine.
She said, why you don’t come out and try for a job at KTLA. They
interviewed me, and I got the job. And
it was basically as a receptionist, and also working for Gene’s longtime
assistant Patricia Wakoski. So I came on September 1981, Jackie Autry had
married Gene on July 19th, and that is really the first time, and
then I was really getting into the movies, the baseball; everything.

HENRY: So you
worked for Gene since 1981. You must
have known him very well.

MAXINE: I
did. When I came on, I was very shy; I
was thirty going on seventeen. And Gene
was very funny, trying to make me laugh; very kind, very sweet man. His secretary unfortunately passed away in
1985. He was looking for a new
assistant. And Mrs. Autry, Jackie, took
me in the back office to talk to me, and I thought she was going fire me.
(laughs) And she said, would you like to
be Gene’s assistant? And I took the
job. And from the beginning, it was an
amazing relationship. He’d mainly come
in and work with Pat (Sidekick and best friend Pat Buttram), and then when I
had to take over, he had to trust me, I had to trust him. Sometimes he’d call me and say, “Honey, I’m
going to replace you with a younger woman, like maybe Brooke Shields.” And I’d say, “Oh Gene, you know older women,
we’re much better.” And he’d just cackle
and laugh. It became that kind of a
really good relationship together; he was a very funny man, a very good sense
of humor.

HENRY:
Speaking of his sense of humor, everyone I’ve known who knew Gene gave
me the impression that he toned down his humor for the public, that he was a
much funnier man in private then in public.
Is that right?

MAXINE: I
would say so. At public events I would
go to with him, it was very interesting what would happen. He would look for someone who was uncomfortable
or maybe in trouble physically, or a child, and he would make a bee-line for
them, and make them comfortable.
One-for-one, every time I saw that.
One of the last times we were together was at a baseball game. And he was already sick; he’s not feeling
that well. And he says, “You know,
so-and-so just had dental surgery, and I’m concerned about him. Let’s give him a call and see how he’s
doing.” He had a wicked sense of humor,
and in public I don’t think he portrayed it that much. I remember, I typed a letter once, and I left
out a word that left it…flavorful. And
he cackled, he got a kick out of it.

HENRY: Now
it’s been sixteen years since Gene passed away.
How have your duties for the company changed?

MAXINE:
They’ve actually expanded. When I
started I handled his correspondence, and Mrs. Autry’s correspondence, and the
files, and the fan club. I arranged
their calendar, and there was always baseball – who was going to sit upstairs
with him in the suite, who was going to sit in the field seats. It’s broadened now into bookkeeping
duties. Because although he passed away,
everything continued. We have four music
companies that license his songs, he has the copyright to his films, which are
being restored and released, and his TV shows.
So there’s parts of that that I handle, there’s FLYING A PICTURES,
there’s a trust, there’s the estate, and it’s broadened into handling his
history, too. After he passed away, and
we knew that 2007 would be his 100th birthday, (Autry Entertainment
President) Karla Buhlman brought up that we needed a definitive, no
holds-barred (biography), and the name that came up was Holly George Warren,
who gave Gene his last interview for The New York Times. They got along famously, and she was the
right person to do it. She’d worked for
THE ROLLING STONE, and had some books under her belt. At that point, it became imperative to really
document Gene’s history. When I first
came on, I was a receptionist. I wasn’t
thinking, preserve the history. A couple of times I sat down to ask, ‘Who is it
in this picture?’ There are so many
questions I didn’t ask him – I would have loved to interview him, and now I’d
know what to ask. Then, I didn’t. So I’ve worked diligently since then to
preserve their history. And I’m talking
about the hardcore history: on June 5th, whatever year, Gene was
someplace. He made so-and-so money in
royalties. As far as his feelings,
that’s what I miss, and what I didn’t want
to miss with the oral history program.

HENRY: And
the fact that you didn’t get to sit down and do the interview with Gene that
you would have liked to, brings us to your new project.

MAXINE: Well,
from 1950 to 1975 – I’ll include LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE in there – that
time frame, there were remarkable television Westerns. And the shows resonated with people so much,
that I started to think of something to do to preserve it. In 2012 I held a VIRGINIAN event that brought
together the remaining members of THE VIRGINIAN cast --

HENRY: That
was that wonderful event at The Autry Museum --

MAXINE:
Yes. And it was tremendously
successful. And I saw again what I saw with
Gene; the letters that Gene would get were so emotional and so touching. And what I saw with THE VIRGINIAN cast, and
what I experienced with BONANZA, I thought, you know, it’s late, it’s way late
in the chain, but I’m going to start documenting these people. Because I know, in the fifties and sixties,
when they were doing interviews, it was a different game. The writer would put in what he wanted to put
in – maybe the story was already set, it was fluffy --

HENRY: It
wasn’t real journalism; it was press releases.

MAXINE: Exactly.
And I wasn’t interested in who they dated. I wanted to know where they came from, how
they got where they were, and technically, what happened on the set. How did they learn their lines? I wanted to find this whole thing out so that
future researchers would be able to look at this body (of information) and say,
‘Oh; I get it.’ Because these were
remarkable people. If these actors, and
these people behind the scenes, these writers, producers – if this didn’t
resonate with people, it wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has; it wouldn’t
have the emotional impact that it does with people still. And I wanted to preserve that.

HENRY: And a
lot of the shows from that era are still running, between INSP, ME-TV, GET-TV, AMC,
ENCORE WESTERN, you get a lot of the old black & whites like WAGON TRAIN,
RAWHIDE, and later shows like HIGH CHAPARRAL; a lot of the shows that were
important to people in the fifties and sixties still are. Now, what exactly are you doing to preserve
these?

MAXINE: I
have a certain target of people that I want to get, and it expands. I bring a subject here and we do a video interview. If not, we do a phone interview. I have a wonderful gentleman, he’s a six or
seven time Grammy nominee, he’s the one that restores all of Gene’s music with
Karla. His name is Bob Fisher, and he
handles the audio and video portion of it.
And what I do, I really study my person, their background, their
history. And then I get a series of twenty
to thirty questions. I sit the person
down, and ask them how it all started.
What entertainment they were interested in, what fired their
imagination, how they got them started.
How they got in the business, how that led finally to a role in a Western. How did they approach the role? What was going on on the set, all the way to
what they are doing now. And it’s not
just the actors. I’ve gotten a couple of
producers, and a couple of stunt people – and I’m getting another one, Dean
Smith very shortly.

HENRY: He’s
great!

MAXINE: He’s amazing. I’m just trying to branch out in any way I
can to get an exact picture of what was going on.

HENRY: As far
as interview subjects, I was very sorry to hear yesterday about the death of
actor Dickie Jones, whose career goes back to being the voice of PINNOCHIO in
1940. He appeared in several Gene Autry
movies, and starred in two of his Flying
A TV series, BUFFALO BILL JR. --

MAXINE: -- and THE RANGE RIDER with Jock Mahoney.

HENRY: We tried to get together for an interview
several times, but it never happened.

MAXINE: I did
interview him, and I’m so glad I did. It was done some years ago – 2002, 2003 –
somewhere around there, and very in-depth.
Dick was one of the most beautiful people I have ever known. We’d actually spoken about a week ago – I’d
sent him a copy of another interview we’d done somewhere along the line – and
we talked, and he was doing well. He
would occasionally take me and Karla out on a lunch date for hot dogs, but we
hadn’t done a hot dog date in a long time.
He was a cherished friend of Gene’s.
We have a couple of people like that, him, Johnny Western, who are our
treasures.

HENRY:
Speaking of Johnny Western (who wrote and sang HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and
many more), have you spoken to him yet?

MAXINE: (excitedly) Yes I did! And that’s another remarkable one. Did you know he was up for the role of Little
Joe on BONANZA?

HENRY: No, I
didn’t know he did that much acting. I
saw him on one episode of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.

MAXINE: Whenever
we’re at an event; he’ll play the BONANZA theme for me. There again, a remarkable talent, and you get
another aspect, which is the songwriter, plus the bonus, a person who performed
with Gene in the latter part of the personal appearances.

HENRY: Are
there other people involved in Gene’s shows that you’ve interviewed?

MAXINE: Jimmy
Hawkins.

HENRY: He was
Tag on ANNIE OAKLEY?

MAXINE:
Right; another amazing guy.
Really, that was a very good interview; he was very very detailed. Very fresh with his memories, and that was
amazingly helpful because he could tell us about the studio, FLYING A. He was able to share pictures with us. And he talked about IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, too. Then ANNIE OAKLEY, and he also did some
personal appearances, and he had some wonderful stories about Gene that he
shared, too. I’m trying to get a fellow
– Jimmy Hawkins turned me on to him --who was a production assistant on ANNIE
OAKLEY, and also on PERRY MASON. That’s
another one I’m trying to do, to get different sides of the whole story.

HENRY: Of
course you’re also focusing on other series.
Have you gotten anyone from BONANZA?

MAXINE: I
haven’t gotten anyone from BONANZA. I
interviewed Harry Flynn, who is a publicist for Michael Landon in the later
years. But I wanted to get that viewpoint
from someone who knew Michael Landon. I
originally wanted to get Dan Blocker’s son, and Michael Landon Jr., who would
have been young when their fathers did this, but I’m not sure I want to go
there. I do want to get Kent McCrea and
his wife Susan (production managers on BONANZA and HIGH CHAPPARAL, producers on
LITTLE HOUSE). I am in touch with them
and hopefully when their schedule permits, I’ll get them.

HENRY: If I
could make a suggestion of someone to get.
I talked to her briefly, but I’m hoping to do more. Did you know Mariette Hartley is the only
actress to have a romance with every one of the Cartwright boys, and Pa?

MAXINE: (startled) Mariette Hartley?

HENRY: She told me, she was romanced by everyone at the Ponderosa except Hop Sing.

MAXINE:
That’s great! I’m going to look
that up! I have to tell you, I’m a
purist. Anything after Pernell Roberts
left… Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon,
I would have loved to interview them.
I’d love to know how Pernell Roberts approached scripts. You know, a lot of these fellows were not
horsemen. James Drury and Doug McClure
were horsemen, but Gary Clarke has a wonderful story about a horse named Babe.
His interview was sheer joy. To someone
who has fallen off two horses – I can really relate. Clu Gulager was my first interview; I’d love
to interview him again. He’s a
fascinating man. You know, let me jump
back a minute. When Gene would sign
autographs, we’d go through them together, and he’s say, “What do you think I
should sign? Does that look okay?” Very caring and conscientious. Clu, the same type of thing. But I’ve seen him do things like, instead of
‘Liz, best wishes,’ and he’d write, ‘Dear Liz – you don’t mind if I call you
that, do you?’ Each woman who came to
him when the VIRGINIAN cast was here, they had these smiles on their
faces. Including me. There’s just something about that gentleman,
and there’s a lot of depth and complexity to him that, in that interview with
him, I didn’t really zero in on. Two of
my other favorite interviews – Ed Spielman, who created KUNG FU and also THE
YOUNG RIDERS. And Frank Price, who
produced THE VIRGINIAN, and then went on to be the head of Columbia Pictures. I didn’t
think I’d get him, but by some miracle I got him twice. And his wife, actress
Katherine Crawford, who is just the most beautiful woman you would ever want to
see. But he was fascinating, because he
started in live television. He was like
two minutes late for the interview. He
comes in – “I’m sorry I’m late!” “Don’t
worry about it.” “I get it from live
television.” He started out (as a studio
reader) reading scripts from the slush pile.
And who’s in the slush pile but Rod Serling. He talks about coming out to Hollywood, and how
TV’s coming in, film’s going out, the studios are shutting down and he can’t
get a job. It’s a fascinating interview. I asked him, you’re a writer and a
producer. You’re an artist, but you’ve
got to watch the budget. How do you work
that? How they use the dialogue; how he
created a whole VIRGINIAN script when they were (over) budget, got back on
budget, and it was one of the most successful episodes. That sort of thing is priceless, and everyone
is adding a little bit to the story.

HENRY: What
other behind-the-scenes people have you spoken to?

MAXINE: Jack
Lilley for one. Four generations of his
family have been in livestock, wranglers, stuntmen. Starting with his father, his family supplied
horses, wagons, all the way to present times – they supplied them for LONE
RANGER and A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST.
How do you select a horse, how do you train a horse (to work
on-camera)? He has a technique. It’s in the horse’s eyes – and he explains it
in the interview. And it’s fascinating
to hear how different stunts were done.
I’m trying to catch (interviews from) different shows now. I don’t necessarily focus on a show, one
person who was on one show, but I have a list.
I try to get different aspects.
One of the interviews I did early on, not for this project, was with
Alex Gordon. Did you know him?

HENRY: No, I
didn’t, but I’m familiar with his work, of course, producing REQUIEM FOR A
GUNFIGHTER and THE BOUNTY KILLER, among others.

MAXINE: He
was with Gene forever. Started out as a
fan in England, then came over here. Gene
hired him as an advance-man for his tours.
Alex kind of looked like a little Alfred Hitchcock, and every woman who
came into the office fell in love with him.
I was able to interview him about how does an advance-man work? Alex did a tour for ANNIE OAKLEY, Gail
Davis. One time he and Gene and Gail
Davis were at an event. They served
oysters. Well, Alex hates oysters, but
he was afraid to let Gene know, so when nobody’s looking he slips them in his
pocket. Then Gail Davis asks him to
dance, and he’s dancing with Annie Oakley with oysters dripping out of his
pocket!

HENRY: I used
to read Alex’s column, The Pit and the
Pen in FANGORIA magazine. He used
to produce a lot of little movies with old-time Western stars, like Rod Cameron
and Dan Duryea. Did he talk about them?

MAXINE: What
he said was, here was someone who used to have a lot of work, and then they
didn’t have work, and he would hire them.
He’d hire them for films like THE SHE CREATURE (starring Chester Morris
and Tom Conway) or ATOMIC SUBMARINE (starring Dick Foran, Tom Conway and Bob
Steele). And they’d sit down and tell
him things. One time I told him I’d been
watching a HOLLYWOOD MYSTERIES episode about an unsolved murder. I said, “I just don’t get how she really
died, and nobody knows.” He said, “I know, and I’ll tell you, because the guy
who was her boyfriend was in my movie, and he wanted to talk about it. It was an accident, and here’s how it
happened.” It was fascinating. I just interviewed a guy named Lucky (Ewing
Miles) Brown. He’s up there in years,
but he’s still active. This guy was in OUR GANG, he did a number of westerns,
he was in SHANE as a bad guy – all these uncredited things, but he’s telling me
all about how things were done.

HENRY: My
mother-in-law was in the OUR GANG comedies.
She had no lines – she was an extra –but she did dance with Alfalfa in
the OUR GANG FOLLIES OF 1938.

MAXINE: That’s so cool.

HENRY: But
speaking of this underlines the importance of your project, to catch these
people when we can. When my wife and I
started attending SONS OF THE DESERT events in the early 1980s, we met their
producer, Hal Roach, who was celebrating his 100th birthday. And there were people there like Iris Adrian
and Eddie Quillan, who had worked with Laurel and Hardy. Now if you go to the events, the last
surviving OUR GANG kids are the only people left.

MAXINE:
That’s exactly what I’m talking about.
I went to a Golden Boot event
one time. Gene is at one table with his
wife and I’m at another, and there is an elderly man sitting there. And he’s very nice; he’s making sure I’m
eating. And he introduces himself; he’s
Nat Levine. “I got Gene in pictures,”
which of course he did. (He built and ran Mascot Pictures, which produced Gene’s
first starring role, the serial THE PHANTOM EMPIRE) I said, “I’ll go get Gene,” and he said, “No,
I don’t want to disturb him.” I have my
list of ‘why didn’t I?’ mistakes, and Nat Levine was one. Pat Buttram was another one that I wanted to
get, along with Gene. I just have so many
questions for them. But you never regret
yesterday. You have to go along and get
who you can now. And I want these people
to understand why I’m doing this. I’m
not into the 1950s Photoplay Magazine; I’m
not trying to do a TV Guide
story. I’m trying to preserve a
segment of a genre that was very important.
And I think still is important because of the factors that were involved
in Westerns. Why do I like westerns? It’s not just good versus bad; it’s a capsule
of all the best qualities in each of us. And all the hope; and all the courage. And you’re racing with the wind. And you can make a difference. Do you see what I mean? And when you have
actors who can bring these qualities to the table, these are the facts that
must be preserved. Not necessarily the
mistakes – we all make mistakes. You
take a Pernell Roberts. Yeah, he should
have stayed with BONANZA, or come back; it would have been wonderful. Doesn’t matter: six years of Adam
Cartwright. You know how many people
love Adam Cartwright for what he stood for?

HENRY: And
six years when they were doing about forty episodes a year. It’s a tremendous amount of work, when today,
five or six years of a series might be fifty episodes.

MAXINE: If
that. Take Jimmy Hawkins; he had all
those shows to do, and appearances with Gene, too. And that’s the same for THE VIRGINIAN cast
too, they were mostly making public appearances too. It’s fascinating to document this.

HENRY: Now
that you are documenting this, what is the ultimate plan for this archive of
material you’re producing?

MAXINE: The
archive goes into the library and archive of the Autry Nation Center Museum of the American West. And the researchers come, for a book, for a
play. From students to newspapers to
people doing movies. So they go in, the
Museum is able to say, well, here’s what we have. You’re documenting young people in the
Westerns? Take a look at the interviews
with Jimmy Hawkins, Billy Mumy. Our
interviews are usually an hour and a half to two hours or more.

HENRY: So
you’re not trimming them down to highlights.

MAXINE:
No. These aren’t dressed up,
they’re raw footage. We’re just letting
it roll. But we’re taking clips, maybe
ten three-minute sound bites from each of them.
And we’re making a Vimeo catalog of them.

HENRY: Do you
ever foresee a time when you’d want to place these interviews on the internet,
or would you always want to keep them in a research facility.

MAXINE: In a
research facility. If you take a
person’s life out of the jurisdiction of the Museum, then you’re just making it
a free-for-all, and that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted it very structured and very
safe.

HENRY: Do you
have a schedule in the sense that you want to do a certain number of people per
year, or is it you get people when you can get them?

MAXINE: I get
people when I can get them, balanced with my other work. I have a list of people I want to do. Jan Shepard is somebody I want to do. She was in a number of Westerns; she was also
on live TV. She’s told me a number of
stories, and I’m just drooling to get them.
Her husband, (Ray Boyle, a.k.a. Dirk London) was in WYATT EARP, and he
also spent years in the prop department – I want to get him. I kind of have a list like that. I’ll tell you what I really want to do. I want to go to the Motion Picture Home, and
just sit down with a group of people there, like secretaries or
hair-dressers.

HENRY: You
mean like a round-table? That’s a great
idea!

MAXINE: I’m
just going to grab Bob Fisher, and we’re going to do that. And I want to do some crossovers (between
Westerns and science fiction). You know,
Morgan Woodward did some famous STAR TREK episodes, and I talked to him about
that.

HENRY: Morgan
Woodward was the villain in the first movie I wrote, SPEEDTRAP. We closed Nickodell’s together. The restaurant outside the Paramount gate; we
were the last two customers when they closed.

MAXINE: I
remember that place! Another crossover I
got was Billy Mumy. He was in everything
– he did a few Westerns, but I wanted to get the viewpoint of that young actor
who’s done a few Westerns, and then he’s doing LOST IN SPACE and BABYLON
5.

HENRY: And my favorite TWILIGHT ZONE: It’s a Good Life.

MAXINE: Remember, Gene Roddenberry had to sell STAR
TREK as WAGON TRAIN TO THE STARS.

HENRY: I
didn’t know that.

MAXINE: I
wanted to get the crossover from that viewpoint. I’d love to get William Shatner too, because
he was in Westerns.

HENRY:
Spaghetti Westerns, too.

MAXINE: What
is the crossover – what are the common bonds that fire people about these two
genres? Because they really catch
people. I want to get Robert Fuller,
some of the other people from WAGON TRAIN.
My next is going to be Dean Smith, who’s coming out here for the next
Cowboy Lunch @ The Autry. And Dean has a
book. Mrs. Autry calls him one of the
good guys, a dear friend of Gene’s, and hers.
I do want to (cover) LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, and get Melissa
Gilbert. And also…I would like to get
Clint Eastwood. Haven’t had the courage
to knock on his door, but I will.

HENRY:
Speaking of Clint Eastwood, he’s the last one I can remember left from
RAWHIDE.

MAXINE:
Yes. And there are a couple left
from WAGON TRAIN. And it’s hard, because
the clock is ticking. This project
should have been started so much earlier, but then there are people like you,
and people like Boyd Magers (editor of Western
Clippings). And what you are doing,
and what Boyd is doing, is incredible.
It just has to be documented. I
consider you and Boyd the top tier for preserving the history. And I’m sort of like the sidekick, coming
along. I’m speaking very candidly now;
not p.r. I’m very glad that it’s being
done, and it’s kind of a relief in my world.

HENRY: You’re
very kind. Maxine, is there anything
else I should know about your work?

MAXINE: I do
want to say something about Gene. Gene
was a remarkable individual with a remarkable life. I am so grateful – and one of the best things
that ever happened to this office is Karla Buhlman, President of Gene Autry
Entertainment. She’s a goddess. She has the knowledge, the capability, the
intelligence and the dedication to restore all of Gene’s music and films and
television shows, and working the radio shows; nobody else could have done it.

HENRY: And
nobody else is showing any interest in preserving radio shows, particularly.

MAXINE: No,
and down the line it will be important.
I think Gene would be proud of all that has been accomplished. And I urge anybody who reads your column, who
is in the business and did do Westerns, to either talk to you or Boyd or me,
and to preserve their scripts and their stories. Because even though some say the day of the
western is done, I don’t think so. Never. Because the heart, the spirit of Gene, Roy,
Monte Hale, the four Cartwrights, James Drury, Doug McClure, all those guys,
the spirit still goes strong, and it will always be with us. And in a world in turmoil, I think preserving
this, and letting that spirit of goodness and decency and what can be, shine
through, is extremely important.

HENRY: Thank
you. And I’ll just throw in something I
find of great interest, speaking of the world in turmoil. From time to time, when I think of it, I’ll
check online to see who is reading Henry’s Western Round-up, in what
countries. And usually the largest
number is in the U.S., and then other English speaking countries, like England
and Australia; we’re read in over 94 countries.
But one thing I’ve noticed over the past four or five months, right
after the U.S., the country where it’s most likely to be read at any given
moment, is the Ukraine. With all that
those people have going on in their lives, I guess they find the same comfort
in the stories of justice and hope, and the individual, that we have. Very big in Russia, too.

MAXINE: That’s
amazing.

Since we spoke, she’s interviewed actresses Donna
Martell and Fay McKenzie. In that time
we’ve also lost MAVERICK star James Garner, WAGON TRAIN star Denny Miller, and
director Andrew V. McLaglen, who helmed more episodes of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL than
anyone else, 96 GUNSMOKES, and many fine features, TV movies and episodes. As Maxine says, the clock is running. The video below is Maxine’s Mission
Statement.

CROATION WESTERN COMEDY ‘KAUBOJI’ (COWBOYS) SCREENS
THURS. AT AERO!

The official Croatian entry for 2015’s Academy
Awards, KAUBOJI was a hit stage play in Croatia, and has been adapted for the
screen by the original playwright, Sasa Anocic, and the film’s director,
Tomislav Mrsic. Set in a drab and claustrophobic industrial
town, it’s the story of eight outsiders who band together to create a play
based on the conventions of classic Hollywood Westerns, and how they grow to
see the play as a metaphor for their own lives and aspirations.

This is an extremely rare opportunity to see this
film – on a big screen no less! – and the presentation will be followed by a
live musical performance and reception!
And dress up, because prizes will be awarded for the best cowboy and
cowgirl get-ups! KAUBOJI
will screen on Thursday, October 23rd at the AERO THEATRE, 1328
Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90403. Go
HERE for more details!

Unlike the movie, this trailer doesn’t have
subtitles, but at least it’ll give you a taste!

‘BUFFALO SOLDIER’ REVIVAL OPENS FRIDAY AT EL PORTAL
NORTH HOLLYWOOD

Clockwise from bottom: Wasim No'mani, Kendall

Johnson, Tony Williams, Daniel Billet,

Will Catlett

Mitch Hale’s play, which won the NAACP BEST PLAY
AWARD FOR 1995, is at the El Portal from October 24th through November
30th. Directed by Sara Wagner
and produced by Johnny Brenner, BUFFALO SOLDIER’s subject matter is unfamiliar
to many: an ‘all negro’ U.S. Cavalry Unit in the American West of the
1870s. The plot concerns three of those
soldiers and their white officer undertaking a hazardous mission in Comanche
country, involving the legendary Quanah Parker.

Playwright Hale told the Toluca Times that the idea came to him when he was acting in the
Vietnam-themed play TRACERS in 1987. “It
got me thinking about the disproportionate amount of men of color in the armed
services — especially in frontline duties. I knew there were
black soldiers brought in to fight against the Native Americans and so I
started researching. It was six years before I finally had a first draft.”

I’ll be reviewing BUFFALO SOLDIER in next week’s
Round-up. The El Portal Theatre is at
5269 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601. To learn more, and order tickets, call 818-508-4200,
or go HERE .

THAT’S A WRAP!

I hope to run into you at BUFFALO SOLDIER or
KOUBOJI! Or doing research at The
Autry! Or all three! Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright October 2014 by Henry
C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

Monday, October 13, 2014

DJANGO’s star Franco Nero, and director Sergio
Corbucci, reteamed in 1970 for COMPANEROS, one of the most enjoyable of the
later Spaghetti Westerns, and BLUE UNDERGROUND’s stunning Blu-Ray edition will
be available October 28th. And
in the interest of full disclosure, C. Courtney Joyner and myself do the audio
commentary.

As Corbucci famously said, “Ford has John Wayne, Leone
has Clint Eastwood, and I have Franco Nero,” and all of their collaborations
are wonderful, imaginative exercises in filmmaking, the in-between one being
THE MERCENARY. COMPANEROS is full of
action and humor, and concerns the Mexican Revolution, and the different
motivations of the many characters on the same and on opposite sides of the
fight. The excellent cast includes Tomas
Milian as an oaf who has revolutionary greatness thrust upon him, and may or
may not be up to it; Jack Palance as the hired gun determined to stop them;
Fernando Rey as the professor who inspires the rebels; stunning German actress
Iris Berben embodying the spirit of the uprising – and representing the German
financial stake in the film; and Franco Nero as the mercenary gun-dealer who
cares only for money when the story starts.
The BLUE UNDERGROUND version has several additional minutes of footage
in the opening scenes which makes the movie much more logical than when it was first
released in American theatres.

The score by Ennio Morricone features a theme that
is not only stirring, but remarkably blood-thirsty when you get the
translation. The dazzling cinematography
is by Alejandro Ulloa, who also photographed Corbucci’s THE MERCENARY, SONNY
AND JED, and WHAT AM I DOIING IN THE REVOLUTION. The two-disc set from BLUE UNDERGROUND
includes a DVD with the film in English, an international trailer, talent bios,
and a 17 minute documentary, IN THE COMPANY OF COMPANEROS, featuring interviews
with Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, and composer Ennio Morricone. The Blu-Ray disc includes both the 114 minute
English-language version and the Italian 119 minute version (with optional
subtitles), everything on the DVD, Court’s and my commentary, more trailers –
amazing how different each is from the next – and a poster and still gallery. Click HERE to go to the BLUE UNDERGROUND site
and see the trailer.

COWBOY LUNCH @ THE AUTRY HONORS HAL NEEDHAM!

At the moment, Rob Word is at The Lone Pine Film Festival, sharing his Western knowledge and
moderating panels amidst the iconic western movie locations like the Alabama
Hills; but come Wednesday at 12:30 he’ll be at the Autry discussing a western
icon of the human kind, legendary stuntman Hal Needham.

Needham, who died in October of 2013, earlier in
that year received an Academy Award in recognition of his work as a stuntman
and stunt coordinator. He broke fifty-six
bones doubling for actors like Kent Taylor in ZORRO, Clint Eastwood in RAWHIDE,
Richard Boone in HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, Burt Reynolds in GUNSMOKE, and a hundred
other actors in a hundred other shows.
He shared a technical Oscar for development of the Shot-maker Elite Camera-car and Crane. And he directed twenty movies, including
HOOPER, the best, and funniest, movie ever made about stuntmen.

Lunch comes first, after which Rob will lead his ‘A
Word on Westerns’, with friends and coworkers of Needham’s reminiscing about
his magnificent career. These
third-Wednesday-of-the-month luncheons are always delightful and informative –
and absolutely packed – so get there early if you want a seat inside! You buy your own lunch, but the event is
free! Below are a pair of clips from two of Rob’s recent
luncheons to give you a taste!

JENNIFER JASON LEIGH JOINS ‘HATEFUL 8’ CAST

The role in Quentin Tarantino’s next Western, which
was played in the staged reading by Amber Tamblyn, will be portrayed on-screen
by Jennifer Jason Leigh. (You can read
Andrew Ferrell’s report on the staged reading HERE) She joins a cast which includes Kurt Russell,
Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Viggo Mortenson, Tim Roth, Walter Goggins
and James Remar.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

On Friday night I had the pleasure of visiting the
set of Kurt Russell’s first western since TOMBSTONE, BONE TOMAHAWK! I’ll have more about that soon in the
Round-up! Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright October 2014 by
Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved